Hollywood celebrities hate fake news, you know, the kind that led millions of people to vote for Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
But limousine liberals aren’t brightest (see Milano, Melissa). And they often end up posting the fakest news on the internet.
That’s just happened Sunday night with singer Better Midler, a longtime Trump hater. She shared a “quote” from the president with her 1.6 million Twitter followers that was “liked” more than 27,000 and retweeted more than 10,000 times.
Midler said that in 1998, Trump said he would one day run as a Republican because they are the “dumbest group of voters.”
“He certainly knew his crowd,” Midler added.
Turns out that tired old quote has been around for years — and debunked by several so-called fact-checking organizations, including the heavily left-leaning Snopes.
“Did Donald Trump Say Republicans Are the “Dumbest Group of Voters’?” Snopes wrote back in 2015. “Trump supposedly proclaimed that Republicans are the ‘dumbest group of voters’ in a 1998 ‘People’ magazine interview.”
“False,” Snopes concluded.
Despite People‘s comprehensive online content archive, we found no interview or profile on Donald Trump in 1998 (or any other time) that quoted his saying anything that even vaguely resembled the words in this meme.
But throughout most of Monday, Midler refused to take down the post (she has since removed it).
Twitterers had a field day. “FAKE QUOTE!!!! ‘Don’t believe everything you read on the internet’ – Abraham Lincoln,” wrote one wag.
FAKE QUOTE!!!!
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet” – Abraham Lincoln
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) June 3, 2019
Another gave Midler the benefit of the doubt. “As believable as it is, he never said this. I appreciate a lot of your tweets about the current political climate but I encourage you to verify facts before spreading misinformation.”
https://twitter.com/LinzDeFranco/status/1135343220764712962
But Nate Madden wasn’t as kind. “Really ironic that someone peddling a widely-known fake quote would call other people stupid …”
Really ironic that someone peddling a widely-known fake quote would call other people stupid …
— Nate Madden (@NateOnTheHill) June 3, 2019
And “Robby Starbuck” pointed out it had all been debunked. “This is a blatant fake and a blatant lie. Even left wing fact checking site Snopes had debunked it.”
This is a blatant fake and a blatant lie. Even left wing fact checking site Snopes had debunked it. https://t.co/0mRo7trSux
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 3, 2019
Finally (finally), the 73-year-old singer got the message.
“I apologize; this quote turns out to be a fake from way back in ‘15-16. Don’t know how I missed it, but it sounds SO much like him that I believed it was true!” she wrote.
I apologize; this quote turns out to be a fake from way back in ‘15-16. Don’t know how I missed it, but it sounds SO much like him that I believed it was true! Fact Check: Did Trump say in '98 Republicans are dumb? https://t.co/NY9s6V49el via @rgj
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 3, 2019
But then she doubled down.
“Yes, one must always check the quotes. That should take up, oh, maybe 23 of the 24 hours in the day? Because there are SO MANY LIES, most of them generated by Trump himself, that the task of separating the truth from the lies is impossible. Which is just how he likes it. #CHAOS,” she wrote.
Yes, one must always check the quotes. That should take up, oh, maybe 23 of the 24 hours in the day? Because there are SO MANY LIES, most of them generated by Trump himself, that the task of separating the truth from the lies is impossible. Which is just how he likes it. #CHAOS
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 3, 2019
Yes, Bette, but for the record, THIS lie was generated by you, and it’d already been debunked numerous times. Maybe just stick to singing?
